Darkened Knights
by SotF
Summary: Xander ends up in a DnD style world and is hunting for a way back to Sunnydale with new friends, allies, and enemies...
1. Nightfall Over Krant

Krant, the so called Jewel of the World, lay between two sparkling rivers illuminated by the thousands of lights of the city. The soft sounds of the nocturnal creatures at the Cariana Zoo touched the night from his vantage point atop the monolithic clocktower of Clockwork Square.

He'd been tracking a thief for some time now, one with quite a name for him or herself. The one known only by the moniker of Chance. The acrobatic menace had stolen some tomes of lore from the vast library of Dennsi and the subject of the stolen works was what concerned him.

Books about a forbidden place hidden deep beneath the city, a place storing things great and terrible. Angels and demons sealed during the Godwar were contained within the Vault of Krant, a place that also held many mythic treasures of unspeakable power and destructive capability.

Whatever Chance was after was dangerous, and he hoped that Luna was right that this could be the first key to his way home.

A moments reflection on his companion from Nibel College, an archivist with her head in the clouds, one of the teams sent out for research and other operations. She was the magical edge to the team, a sorceress of some power beyond the mortal realm and a strange thinker with some touch of the sight.

There was also a note of another team working on a similar mission in the city, a team that included an Eternal of an odd sort.

Eternals still somewhat made him sick, to many old memories of his own world were tied into the bloodsuckers or as he called them vampires or leeches. At least here the Eternals weren't as destructive as on his own plane, or demonic in nature. A few of them were beings he reguarded as half-decent beings, but they still left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. After the fiasco with Angel and Angelus, he could never really trust one of them, even if the native Eternals were different than the vampires back home. It was a disturbing parallel, and one that there were others of as well.

The Wyldes which seemed similar in many ways to the werewolves of his homeworld except they weren't bound by the moon as the weres are, and then there were the genetically modified beings known as Clerics that managed to creep him out with their abilities when he'd encountered them. The Guardians, sentient machines that most considered as free as everyone else.

Then there was the descendants of the angelic and demonic forces of the Godwar that still showed up from time to time. The two races descended from them were disturbing revelations to the existance of things that scared him more than the monsters back in Sunnydale.

A glimmer of motion caught his eye for a moment before his training kicked in to identify what he saw. A breath later he was airborn, leaping off the side of the tower, the long and flowing cloak he wore swirling around him for a mere instant before his rough, leather boots touched one of the six inch wide mooring cables for the tower and slid down it with the metal soles of the boots leaving a trail of sparks behind him.

The silvered lenses dropped across his eyes as he leaped off the cable to a rooftop and started after the target.

The masked thief, Chance, was good, almost to good for people to follow, but the hunter was not quite usual and had backup on the way.

Alexander drew one of his pistols and took careful aim as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop while in hot pursuit of the villain. The brilliant flashes of the fireworks of the festicval of the new year starting even as he moved.

"Luna," he hissed slightly as his first shot missed with Chance using a pole to spin down a level to a lower rooftop, "Any time soon would be good!"

A flash revealed what looked like a playing card impacted an inch away, arcs of blue lightning arced across the metalic card as its enchantment went off. Xander mumbled in annoyance as he remembered that the specific deck of toys the thief used was nearly the signature of the thief.

Then three more cards hit the roof with sparks of flames, a shriek, and a sizzling sound before an explosion shattered the roof just after he'd leaped to safety.

"Explosive Jokers," he growled, "Chance has a few new tricks I see."

In retaliation he fired the five remaining shots in his pistol as the thief leaped across the rooftops above him before giving pursuit once more as pieces of roofing tile shattered under the gunfire while replacing the empty weapon with a fresh one.

The mad cackling of his enemy was unnerving and irritating at the same time as he vaulted onto a rooftop just behind his prey with the dim light of the setting sun across the city as a dangerous backdrop. He was again thankful for the lenses that granted him the ability to see in the aweful lighting conditions of the maze of rooftops.

And then a brilliant flash of light burned bright in the sky above them as a fireball seemed to collide with the thief only to have the acrobat evade with a rebound off a flagpole as his partner seemed to hover for a moment to unleash another spell.

A trail of almost ethereal streaks slammed into the thief, forcing Chance to shudder and miss a step, leading to a momentary tumble off the side, but a quick snag of one of the many wash lines kept the being in the chase.

The cloaked witch landed beside him as he drew a bead on the thief when another figure joined the fight, a pale girl with dark hair and a distinctly eastern style to her own attack on the thief with a sword.

"Ole," Chance declared as he moved with an almost unnatural speed and agility, pausing only for a second to stand atop her blade before bounding away when the roar of a rifle shot split the air, sending sparks as the shot impacted the reflexively raised blade of the girl.

Xander moved into pursuit, pulling his third and final pistol in his free hand and firing with both of the clunky firearms in the hopes of hitting at least once, but he wasn't quite ready for the acrobatic leap the thief made from the side of the building into the Tenro river.

"Damn it," he snapped with a glare at two interlopers, "What the hell is wrong with you, we almost had the bastard!"

"Chance's capture was our responsibility," came a male voice as a young man with short hair and a large rifle stated calmly, "We were dispatched to uncover what was in the Vault Grimorum that was stolen a week ago, your interferance was not desired or requested."

"We're under orders from Nibel College to stop Chance," Luna stated, her far off gaze focusing for but a moment on the now, "Apparently the same as you."

"Ah hell," Xander muttered to himself, "You're the other team in the area aren't you?**  
**

* * *

**Characters**

_**Team 1**_

**Alexander "Xander" Harris** (Variant Urban Ranger, Human) (BtVS)

**Luna Lovegood** (Archivist, Human) (HP)

_**Team 2**_

**Jon O'neill** (Scout, Human) (SG-1)

**Saya** (Swashbuckler, Eternal Chiropteran strain vampire) (Blood: TLV)

_**Other**_

**Chance** (Rogue/Thief-Acrobat/Master Thrower?) (Original)

* * *

**Notes**

This is set in one of my personal DnD campaign worlds. The world is known as Dark Trinity and can be found on the Wizards Message Boards under that name in the Campaign Workshop.

Also this is a present for a friend who should recognize most of this scenario from the games a few weeks back, or at least most of it. Don't worry J, I won't give more away than you've already got about the characters from the setting unless I have to. -


	2. Shopping Day

_Inquisition Airship: Gethemane, Kaldiar Airspace above Krant_

A large man, just over seven foot in height with heavy armor engraved with various runes and symbols of value in gold ontop of the silvery metal. Brilliant crimson cloth hung from the armor starting with a tunic, a large white cross with golden lining was easily visible on the shoulders, chest, and back. Brilliant gold hair hung down below the chest pieces of the armor that seemed to identically match the color of the eyes, though the eys missed the streaks of white through the hair to reveal the mans age.

He leaned back in his chair while watching a clock wind down, his orders were not to act until either something major happens or the time ran out. If either happened his teams could be deployed in the city.

His orders were rather simple and yet aggravating, he was used to acting immediately rather than being delayed by these bureaucrats in another country.

With his guantleted left hand resting on the hilt of his blade, the Lord Inquisitor tried to relax.

* * *

_Dennsi Library, Krant_

"I don't like this Saya," Jon O'neill commented as he leaned back in a chair, legs on the table to the annoyance of the librarians, "Why the hell would the professor make us work with those two?"

The pale vampiress slipped the ancient tome she was persusing back into its place and paused for a moment before turning to face him.

"Those two have been assigned to this city for a while now, it stands to reason that if our missions intersect, we'd be forced to work with them," she responded before turning back to find another book in the hopes of finding more information on the missing tome.

"Yeah, sure," the teenage clone muttered as he blinked and cleared his eyes, "You betcha."

A moment later he leaned back in the seat.

"What I wouldn't give for my game boy right about now," he stated with a frown, "Carter and Danny normally did the book crap."

A half senconds pause before he was knocked over by a flying notebook of Sayas.

"Hey!"

* * *

_Godhand Imports, Myyrdyn Sector, Krant_

Luna Lovegood smiled slightly as she adjusted her cloak while browsing through the various things the owner had on display. She liked to look at the wonders that her own world had never bothered to produce like the little glass songbird she carried with her wherever she went after applying an unbreakable charm on it to keep it from breaking in her pocket.

A piece of her couldn't understand why Alexander kept her away from his more interesting toys, things her dark haired partner kept under lock and key with various things to prevent her from taking a peek.

Of course his toys normally made a lot of noise when used and a lot of smoke and screaming as well, but it was still somewhat confusing.

Paying for her purchases, the young sorceress left the store.

* * *

_The Mad Dragon, Clockwork Square, Krant_

Alexander "Xander" Harris was partially relaxing as he watched Johannen work on his pistols while trying to decide on if he should acquire a few more incase things got hairy when dealing with the thief.

Johannen, or Jo as many knew him, was one of the best Artificers this side of Triden and or Tilman.

The master mechanic worked quickly before hannding him the weapons and pointed to a crate of ammunition before pausing and handing a fourth pistol and a spear off the floor.

"I think you would be able to use these," the old man said with a twinkle in his eye, "A friend of mine dropped them off a while back before he died, and they are already totally paid for, but I think they'll do you pretty well, the spear collapses for ease of carry and the gun is a lot like your others."

Xander was stunned before the man continued, "Now get going kid, you'll need to keep using what I sold you to keep your best customer status!"

* * *

**Notes:** Well, here is part two of this story, I'm almost ready to begin the actual adventure portion of it. There will be more action and adventure in the next chapter, this is more of exposition. As for Luna's pet, it's using the Glass-Kin creature template on a normal songbird. That template is in the Template Troves Web-Enhansement although it isn't a Wizards thing, but I liked the idea of Luna with a glass songbird to carry around.

* * *

**Bobboky:** Well, the class mix is fun, especially if you play with someone who likes motion in combat rather than the simple charge up and slash until someone dies. Although Dark Trinity doesn't have halflings, there are only a few racial choices for Dark Trinity. Human, Wylde (Werewolf typed Shifter), Eternal (Modified Half-Vampire), Guardian (Modified Warforged), Cleric (Elan), Aasimar, and Teifling.

**mchael22:** Saya is from Blood: The Last Vampire and that is only using the movie version at the moment.


End file.
